This application incorporates by reference Taiwanese application Serial No. 90110224. Filed on Apr. 27, 2001.
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates in general to a scanning apparatus, and more particularly to the scanning apparatus with the appearance of a pen for scanning a small-sized document.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the Age of information avalanche, the interaction between people is becoming more and more frequent. People are striving for the efficiency of the information exchange and business affair. For benefiting the business cooperation, it is important to make a deep impression on each other when people first meet. Generally, business people routinely exchange their business cards for introducing themselves and providing relevant information, such as a telephone number, a fax number, an address, an E-mail address, or the like, thereby promoting business contacts and communications. Since these business cards are distributed routinely, a large number of business cards are accumulated over a relatively short period of time. It is not easy to put the large number of business cards in order and is time-consuming to look for the specific one therein. Also, the cards being thrown away or lost indirectly cause the environmental pollution and the waste of resources.
With the thriving development of the computer multimedia, the scanning apparatus for capturing the image recently plays an important role in the daily life. The important information of the documents and the business cards, or the image on the photos and the pictures, can be scanned and stored in the scanner apparatus. The image can be further transformed to digital data so that the data can be easily sorted, manipulated, and transferred by the users. However, the common scanners, such as flatbed scanners, are large and bulky, thus not easy to carry and operate. Accordingly, the scanning apparatus for scanning, the small-sized documents, especially the business card, are designed for satisfying the demand of the market.
For the manufacturers of producing the scanning apparatus capable of scanning the small-sized documents, the major researching directions include power saving, low cost, easy to use, and portability. Although the business card scanners sold in the market are smaller than the conventional scanners, and almost as large as the Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), the business card scanners are twice to triple as thick as the PDA, and the overall size is still too bulky and not easy to carry.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a scanning apparatus with the appearance of a pen for scanning a small-sized document, business card especially. Integration of the scanning associated devices into the shape of pen could make the scanning apparatus easy to carry and operate anywhere and anytime.
According to the objective of the invention, the scanning apparatus with the appearance of a pen for scanning a small-sized document has a casing and a cap. On the casing, an input slot and an output slot are designed for inputting and outputting the small-sized document, respectively. The scanning apparatus also has the transmission apparatus, the light source, the photoelectric sensing device and the control processing unit inside the casing. The transmission apparatus includes the feeding roller for driving the small-sized document. The light source is emitting the light for scanning the small-sized document. The photoelectric sensing device is situated close to the light source for receiving a light signal reflected by the small-sized document and then outputting a digital data of captured image to the control processing unit. The transmission apparatus further includes a spring and a damping. When energy accumulated in the spring is released, the feeding roller is rotated and the small-sized document is delivered into the scanning apparatus. The damping is connected to the spring for controlling the rotation rate of the feeding roller. The cap is designed for covering the input slot and the output slot and functions as a dust cover. The scanning apparatus also has an interface connector on the casing. Through the interface connector such as 1394 connector or USB (Universal Serial Bus) connector, the digital data of captured image stored in the control processing unit can be transmitted to the terminal operating system, such as the computer, the Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) and the cellular phone, and be edited or printed further.